Engineering Newswire: Darth Vader Car Built on a Corvette Chassis

Today on Engineering Newswire, we’re building the world’s largest 3D printer, making eSkin digital tattoos, using your car to track your heart, and turning Darth Vader’s mask into a Corvette. This episode features:

Darth Vader Car: Mattel’s Hot Wheels is coming out with a new line of cars: Star Wars. And what better way to unveil the new line than with a full-sized, fully operational Vader car at this year’s Comic Con?

The Vader car was built atop a C5 Corvette chassis, and it mimics its smaller counterpart perfectly. It’s rumored to be capable of speeds up to 80 miles per hour, and it features lightsaber side pipes, red wheel trim, and a grill designed to resemble Vader’s mask.

World’s Largest 3D Printer: The rapid manufacture of individual prototypes and products has advanced quickly since 3D printers started taking up more space in the office. In fact, everybody has been getting on the 3D printing bandwagon.

Unlike traditional FDM printers, this thing uses plastic pellets that are transferred to the extruder via compressed air. According to the company, using these pellets significantly lower costs.

The electronic tattoo, developed in conjunction with Google’s advanced technology and projects group, is a nickel sized adhesive that you wear on your wrist. Right now, it unlocks your smartphone using near-field communication.

Heart Healthy Car Sensors: A European consortium has joined the battle against fatigued driving, which, if you’ve ever been run off of the road by a sleepy trucker, you can appreciate.

The group is building Harken, a system that uses three principal components to monitor the driver’s heart rate and breathing. Initially, it’s a sensor in a seat cover and another in your belt, each sending data to the signal processing unit under the driver’s seat.